Culture

Time to geek out: 12 sci-fi movies turning 20 this year

Not only had sci-fi legends John Carpenter and Terry Gilliam both released new films, but the biggest, most expensive movie of all time (at that point) was a high-concept, post-apocalyptic film: Waterworld. Some of the films that year flopped, like the live-action comic book adaptation Tank Girl, but most were huge successes — further proof that sci-fi nerds love a big-screen spectacle.

Debuting just as the Internet was entering mainstream consciousness, these films dealt with society's fears of new technology and its unknown effects on humanity. From Johnny Mnemonic's exploration of bio-mechanical enhancements to The Net's explicit fears of a life controlled by the internet, these 1995 films were just beginning to grapple with the ways that the internet would change our lives forever.

This list isn't meant to make you feel old — just nostalgic enough to find out if any of these movies are hosted on your favorite streaming site.

20th Anniversary Sci-Fi Movies

1. 12 Monkeys (12/29/1995)

Part of director Terry Gilliam's dystopian satire trilogy (with Brazil and The Zero Theorem), 12 Monkeys stars Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in a twisty time travel pretzel of a movie.

Image: Universal Pictures

2. The City of Lost Children (12/15/1995)

This movie comes from the mind of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director of both Amelie and Alien: Resurrection. It's a very strange film -- a French-speaking Ron Perlman is one of the least weird things going on. Mad scientists, kidnapped children, and stolen dreams highlight this French sci-fi gem.

Image: Studio Image

3. Strange Days (10/13/1995)

Directed by Katheryn Bigelow and written by her ex-husband James Cameron, Strange Days envisions a future where memories and experiences can be recorded to minidisk for later playback. Ralph Fiennes stars as an ex-LAPD officer who enters the underworld of war-ravaged future Los Angeles.

Image: Lightstorm Entertainment

4. Hackers (9/15/1995)

Hollywood's vibrant, candy-coated vision of teenage hackers stars a young Angelina Jolie and Johnny Lee Miller as they battle evil corporations on and off the web.

Image: United Artists

5. Tank Girl (5/31/1995)

Adapted from the cult British comic series, this post-apocalyptic film is explosive and brutal, starring a malevolent Malcolm McDowell and an unhinged Lori Petty, with a soundtrack by Hole frontwoman Courtney Love.

Image: Trilogy Entertainment Group

6. Johnny Mnemonic (5/26/1995)

Starring Keanu Reeves in one of his best roles, Johnny Mnemonic is another version of the future where computer software and human wetware are combined with dangerous results.

Image: TriStar Pictures

7. Judge Dredd (6/30/1995)

Judge Dredd stars, as the poster will tell you, STALLONE, doing the bare minimum of acting. Nonetheless, the movie is fun, fast paced, and destructive, dealing with classic sci-fi tropes like cloning and the misuse of police power.

Image: Hollywood Pictures

8. The Net (7/28/1995)

This paranoid fantasy of the dangers of the internet stars Sandra Bullock as a programmer who has her identity (and then some) stolen after she stumbles on a wide-spread conspiracy.

Image: Colombia Pictures

9. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (6/30/1995)

This might not be the most high-profile flick on the list, but it's definitely one of the most fun. The first of the Power Rangers movies finds the gang fighting 6,000-year-old supervillian Ivan Ooze and his Ectomorphicon machines.

Image: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

10. Species (7/5/1995)

One of the weirder sci-fi films that addresses fears of female sexuality (see also: Alien), Species concerns a female alien-human hybrid and the team of scientists who try to capture her before she can take a human mate.

Image: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

11. Village of the Damned (4/28/1995)

A vintage John Carpenter film, starring Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley, Village of the Damned contains one of sci-fi/horror's creepiest tropes: evil children. In this case, the children aren't even human, and they use their alien psychic mind powers to inflict pain and control the adults in their small town.

Image: Universal Pictures

12. Waterworld (7/28/1995)

Starring Kevin Costner in an unconventional water-based dystopia, Waterworld follows a group of survivors in the year 2500 as they attempt to find the mythical "dryland."

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